Cemetery Mix-ups Cause New Grief

DAYTONA BEACH - When Paul Carter died seven months ago, his stepson Steve Culler mourned the loss of the man who was the one true father figure in his life.

Last week, Culler felt fresh grief when he had to have Carter's coffin exhumed and the lid opened.

It was the only way he could be certain where Carter was actually laid to rest, after officials at Bellevue-Cedar Hill Funeral Home and Memory Garden admitted they buried him in the wrong crypt.

``It was devastating,'' said Culler, who recognized his stepfather's clothes and watch. ``I saw things that I should not have seen.''

The mix-up involving Carter's body isn't the only complaint that has surfaced against the Daytona Beach cemetery. The state is investigating at least three other complaints from people who say Bellevue sold funeral plots twice, buried loved ones in the wrong place and failed to maintain the cemetery properly.

Burial mistakes are rare, officials say.

In nearly 30 years of overseeing graveyards and mausoleums, cases in which people have been buried in the wrong plot have only come up a handful of times, said Larry Folsom, who supervises the complaint division at the state Department of Banking and Finance, the agency that regulates cemeteries.

``Cemeteries normally keep a map of plotted lots, and they are supposed to mark off the ones that are sold,'' Folsom said.

Officials at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which supervises funeral homes and embalmers, said their department only gets one or two complaints from each county a year about funeral-home problems.

But one mistake is too much for a grieving family to deal with, said Culler's niece and Carter's granddaughter, Melodye Culler.

``We can't have any closure,'' she said. ``It's hard enough to lose him, but to have to go through all of this is horrible.''

Steve Culler said Carter and his mother, Jean Carter, bought a two-person crypt at the Bellevue Avenue cemetery in 1978. Paul Carter, Culler's stepfather since he was 12, died last October.

It was only a couple of days after Carter was laid to rest that the family began to suspect he wasn't buried where he should have been.

Steve Culler said he looked at the back wall of the crypts and saw that Carter's space - which Carter and Culler's mother, Jean Carter, bought in 1978 - had been closed a long time ago. That meant that not only wasn't Carter there, but Culler's mother, who is still alive, couldn't be buried there, either.

Because Jean Carter has been ill, Culler hesitated to fight the cemetery. After seven months, the Culler family finally got Bellevue officials to admit the problems and arranged for Carter to be exhumed as state officials watched.

Steve Culler took his case to state officials and the media, certain the mix-up with Carter's coffin isn't the only problem there. He said the lack of maintenance at Bellevue is obvious. At his stepfather's mausoleum, the crypts are poorly constructed, with concrete slabs caving in and exposing coffins.

``It's not just my father. It's the whole entire graveyard,'' Culler said. ``It's getting so bad you can't even die in peace.''

Another Daytona Beach resident suggests Bellevue has had problems for many years.

Bud Sheppard said he remembers when, in the 1960s, his uncle had to be exhumed and reburied because he was placed in the wrong plot at Bellevue. And recently, Sheppard filed a complaint with the state against Bellevue after he learned that two people are already buried in the lots he bought for himself and his wife.

Folsom said Bellevue's problems could date back more than 20 years to mismanagement by the previous owner, Clifford Coffin. In the late 1970s, the cemetery was in such disarray that the state took it over and the Timmer family, which runs Bellevue today, became the new owners.

Officials at the cemetery and funeral home would not comment. Neither would Bellevue's attorney Gene Tamm.

The saga isn't over yet. After Carter's body was exhumed, he was temporarily reburied in the same spot. Culler plans to bury his stepfather elsewhere, but he is continuing to lead the fight to resolve problems at Bellevue. More than a dozen other families have shared their complaints with him, and more bodies will likely be exhumed within the next couple of weeks, Culler said.

``My case is done, but I want to be sure these other folks have their problems resolved, too,'' Culler said. ``There is no reason why any family should be going through what we're going through.''